Stay Here At Home Beside Me
by nothing-rhymes-with-ianto
Summary: Gale and Randy watch Rebel Without A Cause. Randy feels similarity towards Sal Mineo. Inspired by Rebel Without A Cause and the song Like A Movie Star by The Sixths. Not a songfic.


"Mmm." Gale sighed out through his nose, more noise than air. He and Randy were sprawled together on Gale's old ratty couch, watching the James Dean marathon. East Of Eden had finished and they were on to Rebel Without A Cause. Randy watched Gale's eyes glitter with familiarity as he watched the action onscreen, barely moving his lips as he mouthed the lines along with the movie. His left hand reached into his jacket pocket and produced a joint. He stuck it in his mouth and let it dangle there for a moment, rubbing at an itch just above his eye. Randy was still looking at him, observing him silently, scrutinizing. He watched Gale's face as he sniffed, blinked twice, then turned to him and raised an eyebrow.

"Sometimes you remind me of James Dean."

"Yeah?" Gale asked around the blunt he was lighting.

"Yeah, you do."

Gale handed Randy the spliff and moved his arm up and around to lay across Randy's shoulders. The first two fingers of his right hand scratched gently at Randy's skin through his shirt. Randy lay his head down on Gale's shoulder, sighing gently through his nose. Onscreen, Jim gave Plato a small smirk and gentle, playful nudge after asking "Plato, what is a chickie run?"

Randy bumped Gale's neck with the top of his head. "You used to be like that with me at first. And your acting style is similar to him. Both you're characters are always so in their own heads, but at the same time so open and honestly emotional. You often end up playing the damaged one, the character with the strange family relationship or the messed up past. And you talk the same, with all your 'ums' and 'you knows' and stuff. You even like to mess with people's heads the same."

"Oh. I guess that's a, uh, compliment."

"It is."

He scratched the back of his neck. "Thanks." They watched the next few scenes in silence. Gale's fingers played with the hair just behind Randy's ear. He moved his leg over a little and rubbed his ankle against Gale's. Gale looked at him for a moment, smiling slightly, then leaned over and kissed the skin beside Randy's eye.

Randy stole Gale's joint, taking a hit and handing it back. "You know," Randy observed thoughtfully, exhaling the smoke. "Sometimes I feel like I got what Sal Mineo didn't."

Gale made a face. "A weirdo, antisocial lover who doesn't really like to talk and who pisses other people off because he does and says what he wants to, even if it's fucked up?"

"No!" Randy punched Gale's leg lightly. "And that's a lot of words for someone who doesn't like to talk." Gale huffed a small laugh. "No, that's not what I meant. I got what Sal didn't because I got to know the star, I got to spend time with him. I got to see the man behind the enigma, got to love him and be loved by him. It's more than Sal ever got."

"I guess it is."

"I sort of feel sorry for him. For Sal. And for Plato."

"Mmm?"

"Plato only knew Jim for like, a day. He died without knowing what Jim's affection would really be like. And Sal never got the full extent or experience because by the time he figured out it was really okay to like other men, James was dead. But in the movie, and in the screen tests in those documentaries you watch, you can see how much Sal idolized and adored James. It's just sad, is all."

"Yeah, except this time you were the out gay man, and I was the idiot who took four years to figure it out."

"At least you figured it out in time. And we get to have this."

Gale raised both eyebrows and made a jokingly disbelieving face. "Who'da thunk it?"

"Everyone. Except you and me, of course." Gale snorted and shook his head, the arm around Randy's shoulders shaking him slightly.

"Doesn't it always work that way?" Gale blew a stream of smoke out, tapped the ash off the end, blew on it a little.

"I guess so."

Fingers stopped in Randy's hair, tangled through it and squeezed gently. "It's weird to love someone and not know it for a while. Then suddenly you wake up and realize what this feeling has been for so long."

They breathed together. "Gale?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you think James Dean and Sal Mineo would've stayed if Sal'd figured it out sooner?"

Gale's arm tugged Randy close, pulling him down so that his head was now in Gale's lap, with Gale carding his fingers through his hair. "I don't know. I like to think so."

"Me too."


End file.
